Bedford's Tour (1807)

Vol. Vp126
Appendix G. — Loftus Heights.

Before D'Iberville founded his colony on the Gulf, as early as the Spring of 1698, the Seminaire des Etrangeres decided to send missionaries to the Indians of the West. Fathers Montigny, Davion and St. Cosme were selected to found the mission which was divided into three stations on the Lower Mississippi. Father Antoine Davion chose the Tonica Indians as his field, this was at first near the mouth
p127of the Yazoo river, but a little later they removed to the bluffs south of the present city of Natchez which site was known under the French domination as "Roche de Davion," Davion's Rock. When the English began to occupy the Mississippi forts after the treaty of Paris in 1763, General Johnstone in command at Pensacola ordered Major Loftus with a part of the 22nd Regiment to ascend the Mississippi to occupy the forts of the Illinois country. Proceeding from New Orleans Feb. 27, 1764, with 350 men on the 20th of March he reached the point opposite Davion's Rock, where he was severely attacked by the Indians, having six men killed and four wounded, whereupon retreat was made to New Orleans. From this incident the place under the English rule was known as Loftus Heights. When the Americans occupied the former Spanish territory on the lower Mississippi, by order of Gen. Wilkinson in 1798 a fort was built at Loftus Heights to which the name of Fort Adams was given and since there has ever been a settlement of that name at this site. In 1808 Cuming thus describes the village:

"Fort Adams or Wilkinsonburg is a poor little village of a dozen houses, most tom in decay, hemmed in between the heights and the river. The fort from which it derives its first name, is situated on a bluff overhanging the river, at the extremity of the ridge of Loftus Heights. It is about one hundred feet above the ordinary level of the Mississippi, which is not more than three hundred feet wide here, so that the fort completely commands it, with several small brass canon and two small brass howitzers mounted en barbette. The fort which is faced with brick, has only a level superfices large enough for one bastion, with a small barrack inside, the whole of which is commanded by a block-house a hundred and fifty feet higher, on the sharp peak of a very steep hill, which in time of war might serve as a look out, as well as a post, as it commands a most extensive view over the surrounding wilderness of the forest, as well as the meanders of the river for several miles." — Cuming's Tour, p329.

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